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Single Idea 4973

[filed under theme 18. Thought / D. Concepts / 5. Concepts and Language / b. Concepts are linguistic ]

Full Idea

As I understand it, a concept is the meaning of a grammatical predicate.

Gist of Idea

As I understand it, a concept is the meaning of a grammatical predicate

Source

Gottlob Frege (On Concept and Object [1892], p.193)

Book Ref

Frege,Gottlob: 'Translations from the Writings of Gottlob Frege', ed/tr. Geach,P/Black,M [Blackwell 1980], p.43


A Reaction

All the ills of twentieth century philosophy reside here, because it makes a concept an entirely linguistic thing, so that animals can't have concepts, and language is cut off from reality, leading to relativism, pragmatism, and other nonsense.


The 9 ideas from 'On Concept and Object'

There is the concept, the object falling under it, and the extension (a set, which is also an object) [Frege, by George/Velleman]
Frege mistakenly takes existence to be a property of concepts, instead of being about things [Frege, by Yablo]
It is unclear whether Frege included qualities among his abstract objects [Frege, by Hale]
Frege's 'objects' are both the referents of proper names, and what predicates are true or false of [Frege, by Dummett]
Frege felt that meanings must be public, so they are abstractions rather than mental entities [Frege, by Putnam]
As I understand it, a concept is the meaning of a grammatical predicate [Frege]
For all the multiplicity of languages, mankind has a common stock of thoughts [Frege]
A thought can be split in many ways, so that different parts appear as subject or predicate [Frege]
Frege equated the concepts under which an object falls with its properties [Frege, by Dummett]